Attorney general siding with governor's challengers in suit

Saturday

Dec 29, 2007 at 12:01 AMDec 29, 2007 at 4:33 AM

A Cook County judge is allowing Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to intervene as a third party in a lawsuit that challenges Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s authority to expand a government health-care program without lawmakers’ approval.

Adriana Colindres

A Cook County judge is allowing Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to intervene as a third party in a lawsuit that challenges Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s authority to expand a government health-care program without lawmakers’ approval.

Opposing Blagojevich in the lawsuit are Riverside attorney Richard Caro, former Republican gubernatorial candidate Ronald Gidwitz and Greg Baise, president of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association. They say the Democratic governor overstepped his authority by expanding a program the General Assembly did not fund.

The governor has called the attempt to block his plans “Scrooge-like.”

Madigan’s role in the case will be a limited one, her chief of staff, Ann Spillane, said Friday. The attorney general’s office will argue why a bipartisan panel of state lawmakers called the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules is constitutional, Spillane said.

She said the issue is relevant because the governor wants to argue that long-established administrative procedure — namely, JCAR — is unconstitutional.

Madigan is the daughter of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, who’s involved in a legal dispute of his own with Blagojevich over the scheduling of special legislative sessions.

The JCAR controversy is the latest twist stemming from Blagojevich’s effort early this year to convince lawmakers to approve his proposal to expand government-subsidized health-care coverage. They never did.

In November, his Department of Healthcare and Family Services filed an emergency administrative rule to expand the income-eligibility guidelines for the Family Care health-care coverage program.

JCAR blocked the emergency rule from taking effect, but the governor went ahead with his plans anyway. A Blagojevich spokeswoman said the governor views JCAR’s role as “merely advisory.”

The lawsuit was filed shortly afterward.

On Thursday, Judge James Epstein said at a hearing that Madigan’s office could intervene.

When asked for comment on the case Friday, Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch sent an e-mail.

“In respect to the Attorney General’s role in the proceedings — this lawsuit filed by Republican activists is fundamentally about preventing people from getting access to health care,” the e-mail said.

It added: “It is surprising that the Attorney General is intervening on their behalf, and not fighting to help people. Her actions jeopardize access to health care for hundreds of thousands of people who’ve been receiving health care from the state since long before Gov. Blagojevich was elected.”

Spillane disagreed.

“Everyone agrees that the state of Illinois should provide more expansive health-care coverage to the greatest extent possible. This case is not about health care,” Spillane said. “It is about how the rules and the laws in the state of Illinois are made.”

Blagojevich’s attorneys for the lawsuit are not from the attorney general’s office. They are private-sector lawyers who have been appointed as special assistant attorneys general for the case.

Adriana Colindres can be reached at 782-6292 or adriana.colindres@sj-r.com.